Will Newman


(ob)literate

The kids all

laughed when

I mentioned Jesus’s

abs There are ways

we’re all reduced

to symbols OK

structures The daily

feels more and more

waterfall I keep

Telling them how

Narrative emerges

Pokeweed on cleared

land Wherein I failed

To annihilate the spotted

Lantern fly with The Collected

Poems of James Schuyler

The bug shit soiled the soil

Aphids in the crucifers

I never noticed the snake

Under Mary’s feet either

The shapely building’s Outer

edge reveals the way Space

collects on the inside while

Numbers of lit windows

is about capital And the

number of windows is

about capital It is necessary

To forget we are Surrounded

The garden’s chard remains

Stunted by the fecund

motherwort and it’s

American history! that

Memorializes throughout

the city Distracted

eyes drawn to stations

of the cross I’ll admit

to occasional Serenity

prayers exiting Highways

below vaulted underpasses

Cathedrals abound

Connection is not

The problem The cautious

fruiting of Our neighbor’s

peppers A mounting police

presence Each railing

a recollection Showering

pumpkins on the vine

Alienation is so effective

Because it feels so bespoke

Rendered to the general

Oblivion of a universal

Particularity: a humble

posture Mulch poked

Socks and the problem

of order Oh is this grief

mine Left to our own devices

We run out of space

Climax as decoration

Atop connective tissue

That there may be a point

Blossoms attract The highest

reach Is all adornment

All writings and buildings

Ducks and decorated sheds

Constellations and religious

Iconography hallelujah

Hucksters with blueprints

for the future I am not

allowed The concept

of windows Training cukes

Around a salvaged easel

Despite such examples

Of neural plasticity

Labor markets don’t

Adapt like magic

Traffic spectacles

Overturned freeway

desires Shedding

details split overripe

Sungolds at le fin

du oof There are

No plot structures

for end times Revelation

is a condo building

in Northern Liberties

Obliteration at its root

where we’ve always been

written Matter over written

Matter given all the unknowns

We’re living with we try

To know as much as we can

Constant genuflection

Working for holy ghosts

and blueberries Weeding

the outline Everyone

kneels somewhere Inside/

Outside human/animal

sacred/profane Emerge

in readily erasable Markings

on the white Board

but the students Complain

about legibility

note on queer poetics #4

enough with
the western
decadent I

don’t care
what drugs
you did last

night yes de-
sire is desire
in poetry is

fundamental
ie unavoidable
but what i want

is discipline and
what’s more
liberation (all of it)


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Will Newman (they/them) is an educator and poet—among other more-or-less relevant things—living in Philadelphia, PA. You can find their currently available ~poems here.